Study: Personalization going mainstream

When it comes to targeted marketing, businesses of all sizes are keying in on personalization. That's the takeaway from the new 2016 Trends in Personalization study from Evergage, which found most (85%) of brands are using some form of personalization.

These early personalization efforts aren't the strongest, despite the number of brands using the targeting option. Most (55%) say their personalization efforts are mediocre and 65% believe their competitors' personalizations are mediocre.

Email leads as the medium most brands are using personalization efforts (67%), but more than half (56%) are attempting personalization via their websites, and 27% are using personalization via mobile websites. Just over half of marketers have staff dedicated to personalization.

"For years, 1:1 personalized experiences have been the dream for digital marketers,"said Karl Wirth, co-founder and CEO of Evergage. "While companies are getting closer with implementations of personalization, to be effective and truly deliver a 1:1 experience, marketers must ensure they have a platform that collects and maintains a unified profile for each individual visitor, and enables a response to the data - across any channel - in real time. This is no longer a pipe dream - it's an imperative."

Other interesting findings from the report include:

• 65% of those using personalization have seen increased conversion rates
• 62% report increased engagement
• 39% of those who aren't using personalization cite lack of technology to support it
• 1 in 3 say they'll increase personalization budgets
• 64% say personalization 'want to see' bigger company-wide focus on personalization